The invention relates to a receiver comprising at least two receive branches and including a combining arrangement for combining the receive branches.
Receivers comprising at least two receive branches, in which either one of the two receive branches receives signals with the same signal content, are denoted diversity receivers and can be used, for example, in mobile radio systems. In so-called space-diversity systems the aerials of the individual receive branches are spatially arranged several wavelengths apart. In so-called frequency-diversity systems the signals are transmitted and received at various frequencies. Due to the different transmission characteristics for each transmit path or each frequency, the signals are received with different qualities in the individual receive branches. By accordingly processing the signals received in the individual receive branches it is possible to obtain an input signal which, for example with respect to the signal-to-noise ratio, has better properties than the individual received signals.
German Patent Application P 40 18 044.1 (date of filing Jun. 6, 1990) describes a receiver with at least two receive branches for receiving a transmitted data sequence. Each receive branch comprises an equalizer. The equalizers are arranged in such a way that they not only detect the received data but also produce a reliability information signal for each detected data symbol. The equalizers are based on the so-called Viterbi method. The equalization is effected separately in each branch so that this requires relatively high manufacturing costs.